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THE ARMENIAN ORPHAN RUG: A RELIC OR AN INSULT?
The News Tribune, WA
Nov 14 2013
By Michael Doyle
McClatchy Washington BureauNovember
WASHINGTON - A rug woven long ago by Armenian orphans is presenting
the White House with a tough political knot.
Dozens of lawmakers from California and other states with large
Armenian-American populations want the rug put on public display.
White House officials insist the rug, for now, must remain in storage.
The rising tension, reminiscent of past fights over congressional
Armenian genocide resolutions, crosses both domestic and international
borders.
"I'm sure it's a touchy subject to some," Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif.,
said in an interview Wednesday, "but this rug is important.
This is something that's important to a whole community."
Valadao and 32 other House of Representatives members from both
parties, including a dozen from California, signed a recent letter
to the White House urging release of the rug from storage. They want
it displayed, as some had originally hoped would happen at the famed
Smithsonian Castle as part of a proposed reception for a new book,
"President Calvin Coolidge and the Armenian Orphan Rug."
Published by the Armenian Cultural Foundation, the 75-page book
recounts the history of the roughly 12- by 18-foot rug that was
presented to Coolidge in 1925. More than a poignant floor-covering, the
rug commemorated U.S. aid for an orphanage that served young survivors
of what the congressional letter termed "the Armenian Genocide."
This is where the rug rekindles a long-running fight, as the
rug's congressional champions have been among those pushing a
congressional Armenian genocide resolution that likewise faces
high-level resistance. California Democrat Adam Schiff, who helped
lead the rug letter-writing campaign along with Valadao, explicitly
attributed the White House decision to diplomatic fears.
"It's hard for me to reach any conclusion but that they don't want
to offend Turkey," Schiff said in an interview Wednesday. "If that's
their motivation, that's completely unacceptable."
White House officials, though, discount speculation about their
curatorial motives.
"Displaying the rug for only half a day in connection with a private
book launch event, as proposed, would have been an inappropriate use
of U.S. government property, would have required the White House
to undertake the risk of transporting the rug for limited public
exposure, and was not viewed as commensurate with the rug's historical
significance," Laura Lucas Magnuson, a spokeswoman for the National
Security Council, said in a statement Wednesday.
A White House official added Wednesday that the decision to keep
the rug in storage, first reported by The Washington Post, "does not
preclude" the possibility that it might be displayed sometime in the
future. Schiff said he will be testing that proposition, as he plans
to organize another event for which he will be seeking the rug or
another one like it.
Randall Kremer, spokesman for the Smithsonian Institution National
Museum of Natural History, stressed in an interview Wednesday that a
Smithsonian cultural anthropologist, the U.S. ambassador to Armenia
and a White House curator had only engaged in preliminary talks about
the possibility of displaying the rug as part of a reception for the
book. When the White House curator said it would not be possible,
planning stopped.
"The event never got beyond the discussion stage," Kremer said.
The event that never was, though, has since incited more debate over
diplomacy, remembrance and political clout.
By some estimates, upward of 1.5 million Armenians died during the
final spasms of the Ottoman Empire, between 1915 and 1923. Historians
and a number of governmental elected bodies have characterized the
catastrophe as genocide, a term first recognized in international
law in 1948 as referring to actions that are intended to destroy in
whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
This year's House version of an Armenian genocide resolution,
introduced by Valadao and Schiff in May, has attracted 45 co-sponsors
so far. That is far less than is needed to move the measure along,
especially in the face of a skeptical administration and a sensitive
NATO ally.
Turkey strongly opposes any resolution that includes the phrase
"Armenian genocide," and the country's officials have warned of dire
diplomatic consequences if such a measure were to pass. The country
has hired lobbyists, such as former House Majority Leader Richard
Gephardt, to help make its case. Between mid-March and mid-July of
this year, for instance, Gephardt personally called or met with some
40 House members on various Turkish issues, according to Justice
Department foreign lobbying filings. Many other contacts were made
by Gephardt's co-workers.
Mustafa Sungur, a press counselor for the Turkish embassy, said
Wednesday that Turkey did not have any communication or engagement
with the U.S. government on the rug issue.
Behind the scenes, State Department and Pentagon officials have
traditionally resisted such commemorative resolutions as well. The
last time an Armenian genocide resolution came close to reaching the
House floor, in 2007, 25 House members abruptly reversed course and
dropped their support.
"The closer we've come to a vote, the more informed I've become,"
then-Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., said at the time.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/11/13/2889618/the-armenian-orphan-rug-a-relic.html
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
The News Tribune, WA
Nov 14 2013
By Michael Doyle
McClatchy Washington BureauNovember
WASHINGTON - A rug woven long ago by Armenian orphans is presenting
the White House with a tough political knot.
Dozens of lawmakers from California and other states with large
Armenian-American populations want the rug put on public display.
White House officials insist the rug, for now, must remain in storage.
The rising tension, reminiscent of past fights over congressional
Armenian genocide resolutions, crosses both domestic and international
borders.
"I'm sure it's a touchy subject to some," Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif.,
said in an interview Wednesday, "but this rug is important.
This is something that's important to a whole community."
Valadao and 32 other House of Representatives members from both
parties, including a dozen from California, signed a recent letter
to the White House urging release of the rug from storage. They want
it displayed, as some had originally hoped would happen at the famed
Smithsonian Castle as part of a proposed reception for a new book,
"President Calvin Coolidge and the Armenian Orphan Rug."
Published by the Armenian Cultural Foundation, the 75-page book
recounts the history of the roughly 12- by 18-foot rug that was
presented to Coolidge in 1925. More than a poignant floor-covering, the
rug commemorated U.S. aid for an orphanage that served young survivors
of what the congressional letter termed "the Armenian Genocide."
This is where the rug rekindles a long-running fight, as the
rug's congressional champions have been among those pushing a
congressional Armenian genocide resolution that likewise faces
high-level resistance. California Democrat Adam Schiff, who helped
lead the rug letter-writing campaign along with Valadao, explicitly
attributed the White House decision to diplomatic fears.
"It's hard for me to reach any conclusion but that they don't want
to offend Turkey," Schiff said in an interview Wednesday. "If that's
their motivation, that's completely unacceptable."
White House officials, though, discount speculation about their
curatorial motives.
"Displaying the rug for only half a day in connection with a private
book launch event, as proposed, would have been an inappropriate use
of U.S. government property, would have required the White House
to undertake the risk of transporting the rug for limited public
exposure, and was not viewed as commensurate with the rug's historical
significance," Laura Lucas Magnuson, a spokeswoman for the National
Security Council, said in a statement Wednesday.
A White House official added Wednesday that the decision to keep
the rug in storage, first reported by The Washington Post, "does not
preclude" the possibility that it might be displayed sometime in the
future. Schiff said he will be testing that proposition, as he plans
to organize another event for which he will be seeking the rug or
another one like it.
Randall Kremer, spokesman for the Smithsonian Institution National
Museum of Natural History, stressed in an interview Wednesday that a
Smithsonian cultural anthropologist, the U.S. ambassador to Armenia
and a White House curator had only engaged in preliminary talks about
the possibility of displaying the rug as part of a reception for the
book. When the White House curator said it would not be possible,
planning stopped.
"The event never got beyond the discussion stage," Kremer said.
The event that never was, though, has since incited more debate over
diplomacy, remembrance and political clout.
By some estimates, upward of 1.5 million Armenians died during the
final spasms of the Ottoman Empire, between 1915 and 1923. Historians
and a number of governmental elected bodies have characterized the
catastrophe as genocide, a term first recognized in international
law in 1948 as referring to actions that are intended to destroy in
whole or in part a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
This year's House version of an Armenian genocide resolution,
introduced by Valadao and Schiff in May, has attracted 45 co-sponsors
so far. That is far less than is needed to move the measure along,
especially in the face of a skeptical administration and a sensitive
NATO ally.
Turkey strongly opposes any resolution that includes the phrase
"Armenian genocide," and the country's officials have warned of dire
diplomatic consequences if such a measure were to pass. The country
has hired lobbyists, such as former House Majority Leader Richard
Gephardt, to help make its case. Between mid-March and mid-July of
this year, for instance, Gephardt personally called or met with some
40 House members on various Turkish issues, according to Justice
Department foreign lobbying filings. Many other contacts were made
by Gephardt's co-workers.
Mustafa Sungur, a press counselor for the Turkish embassy, said
Wednesday that Turkey did not have any communication or engagement
with the U.S. government on the rug issue.
Behind the scenes, State Department and Pentagon officials have
traditionally resisted such commemorative resolutions as well. The
last time an Armenian genocide resolution came close to reaching the
House floor, in 2007, 25 House members abruptly reversed course and
dropped their support.
"The closer we've come to a vote, the more informed I've become,"
then-Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., said at the time.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/11/13/2889618/the-armenian-orphan-rug-a-relic.html
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress